Thursday, 7 June 2012

THE SACREDNESS OF NAKEDNESS: THE SIN WITH 2 SIDES OF AN APPLE.

NAKEDNESS…THE PRIDE IN BEARING THAT WHICH IS TO BE COVERED.
Many believe that Nakedness is something not to be ashamed of citing three popular questions that always riddles the human mind.

1. If we were born naked, does it imply that we were born in a shameful state?

2. Is our nakedness simply bizarre, maybe grotesque, unholy or rather plain old vulgar? and besides religion,what is the purpose of clothing?

3. Why did God create the first beings naked?

This continually tuggles the human mind. Why are we supposed to cover our nakedness? Why do we need clothes. I would say clothing has two main functions; It is a form of expression mainly used to aesthetically enhance and promote parts of the body and secondly it is a protective shield during harsh or varying weather conditions. Yet in several circumstances, bearing one’s nakedness in a public forum is often seen as abominable, a trend that is fast fading anyway. This is where religion comes in (Remember, Christianity is not a religion, but a *lifestyle* Very few understand this). According to the biblical creation story of Adam and Eve, the eating of the forbidden fruit brought with it several curses including “knowledge” and the shameful realization of nakedness among others. The very sole action that changed the fate of man's outward appearance was the ingestion of the Forbidden fruit. Men and women were supposed to walk around without shame and probably not recognizing that they are naked. Sex would be easier and the issue of arousal wouldn't be a factor. *winks*. So where did mankind go wrong in all these? By eating the fruit. It is important therefore to establish a vital truth: Before the Apple, nakedness was never a sin, after the Apple, it became a sin. So what changed? It was just a fruit! Well, a lot did. The realisation of nakedness was one of the post-fruit tricks of the devil. He knew he could get man to sin via nakedness and so he capitalized on that and made man aware of his naked state of mind and Body. While the word of God guards our minds, the clothes were meant to guard our bodies. One who is familiar with Lucifer's items on the agenda, knows very well that he always tries to paint a "False picture". A quick reminder, the devil is never a creator: he can't bring out something new. He only does old things in a new way. Thus, he set out to convince man that the state in which He was created was a shameful state. He made man away of his 'first conscious sin'___Nakedness. That is why the Psalmist writes 'in Sin were we all born"..Simply interpreted: In nakedness were we all brought into the World. Man's first sin was disobedience, but his first conscious sin was Nakedness.
This clearly underlines the importance of being 'born-again'' in order to return to the Factory room. (John 3:3).
So I ask, Is the shame of nakedness largely due to societal influence, beliefs and traditions? Is it deeply rooted in the law book of the Creator? One may ask, What happened to several indigenous people of the earth who once resided or who now reside in the hotter regions of the earth? Before the influx of the Abrahamic clothing tradition, they were all naked and unashamed. Is it right to say that such group of people were exempt from the dogma of 'Nakedness as a sin"?
Many have been haunted by the idea of nakedness and thus do consider nakedness a perfectly natural God-given state, and just like we were taught to be ashamed of our nakedness we could easily be taught to embrace it. Well, it all starts mini before it goes grand. Check the beaches in Rio De Janeiro, the Caribbean or Summer in the US, you wil get a rough idea of what I am talking about. Covering the body is a choice and it should remain that way. Man therefore draws a battle between what he thinks is right and what The Creator thinks is right. The initial idea was clear, God wanted a sinless world. A world where no one knew what was right or wrong (Gen 3:22). The desire for knowledge led the Woman to the fruit (Gen 3:6), the knowledge of good and evil. So therefore, the first Knowledge that man came to realize was that of his nakedness and his first creation was a piece of covering made from leaves. Since then, Humanity has not looked back in the task of covering its nakedness. The Atomic bombs, the sophisticated gadgets, all all the splendor of science is all geared towards one thing____Fending for man's greatest insecurity, Nakedness.

After living in a communal sense in a boarding house during my High school days, I began to fathom for the very first time the concept of nature, shame and nakedness. If everyone is willingly naked and one person is clad, who is the odd one? Given the fact that we the boys all shared one bathroom and walked around with our creative masterpieces walking alongside and in-between our legs, we had little or no shame. There is no shame in nakedness when it is perceived as a norm, especially when you are in the bathroom. But what changed when we had to walk into the assembly hall? Why couldn't we walk in with that same shamelessness, naked and proud to be? Well, something changes. What is it, I'm yet to find out but whether Society has a hand in it, I do think so. So am I for nudity? Well, all I know is that I am for sanity.
So how do these little kids function? What is it in them that enables them to be able to roll on the sands, play naked and have no shame but pure joy. From my little history with growing kids, I know one thing for sure, they do not like putting on Clothes. Well, not all but a good majority. I belonged to the "not all". This does leads me to Kola Boof, the African Womanist, author and Poet who said "I am topless to honor my mothers and grandmothers, my own African womenfolk who were always bare breasted in the sun and who gave birth to this whole world. They created and sustained the natural world.They were naked not because they were backwards and didn't know any better…but because they had done nothing wrong. They were not dirty and soiled by man's greed and violence. They were naked because it pleases God…and I do believe that it's an abomination against God for any woman's breasts to be covered. I also do it because it's not Christian and it's not Islamic. I truly want to plant a seed in favor of women creating their own institution of religion, because that's all religions are institutions."
She claims that it has everything to do with her belief in women starting their own religion, going back to the early African goddess principles of females being considered clean, their bodies' holy temples which bring life into the world. Their "monthlies" celebrated and their breasts regarded as religious ornaments representing the "circle of life."

As humans, our bodies are the most beautiful work of art and medium of unfathomable expressions both physically and spiritually, God's greatest creation…clothing is part of our expression but should not be seen as what covers our ‘shamefulness’. Clothing evokes a style, styles that sets us apart, but at the same time a fashion that brings us together. God's original intention was to showcase his best piece of artistry openly, just like a painter exhibits his best piece in an exhibition. But the art-piece rejected the painter's colors and opted for a Hunter's leaves. That's the story of man's first clothing line.

In Some parts of Africa like Namibia, Cameroon, and South American countries like Ecuador, Brasil, and indigenous parts of Indonesia, Australia e.t.c. there are indigenous tribes who manage to maintain their traditional way of life and clothing, which doesn’t require them to cover themselves out of shame. However, not all Africans or South Americans walk around with this dogma of "Insanity", a good majority do cover their nakedness with pride. Only indigenous tribes are privileged to live naked, as such the cities and villages in several South American and African nations live according to the normal way of living i.e clothed according to modern fashionable and traditional standards. Like in the video above, we see controversial Pop queen of South Africa Brenda Fassie doing the "African Breast dance", an integral element of the culture in some indigenous parts of Southern Africa.
Whether it be religion or beliefs, faith or fear, society or lifestyle, there is nothing more sexier than Confidence. And a big part of confidence lies in appearance. So which are you most confident in, Nakedness or "Clothedness"?
Whatever turns out to be, in a world of free opinions, nothing is ruled out. But to conclude my back-aching piece of writing and without further ado, 3 points do stand out:

Himba Woman From Namibia.

A) Man realized he was naked and felt ashamed, So he took leaves to cover his nakedness. The first sign of recognition that nakedness was a sin. Every sin is done in hiding (Gen 3 vs 7).
B) God reiterated the need to clad ourselves so he engineered the first durable piece of clothing line for man, from animal hides (Gen 3 vs 21).
C) Nakedness before the fruit was the initial idea, hence it was no sin. Nakedness after the fruit is a sin. It may earn you a curse or a blessing.(Gen 9:18-21,) cost you a life(2nd Samuel 11 and 12), and lead you to lust.

It's simple logic: Nudity in whatsoever form is non-acceptable. Isn't it insane to expose what everybody covers? #justasking!

8 comments:

i like the biblical connection it gives the work authority, one of my professors taught " the body, as art allows one to curate self" the question is important for us as a christaian ppl knowing that christianity is apart of the world where tribal nakedness is apart of reality. keep writing bro

**No it is NOT insane, it is NATURAL**....We don't live in the Dark Ages anymore; fewer and fewer people are subscribing to the dogmatic, myopic and narrow-minded nonsense of organized religion, and thankfully so; religion has so much less influence in government, and in peoples lives in general, than it did in the past, and I am so thankful that is the case. What some stupid caveman decided to scratch down nearly 2000 years ago on some papyrus leaves, after a night of hallucination from eating spoiled wheat, is nothing to follow religiously. God did not create man with clothing, you are not born covered up with Levi's, Calvin Klein and Guess... And not everybody subscribes to Christianity, 80% of the population of the earth does not give a shit what the Bible says...The human body is not gross, evil or disgusting. It is the most beautiful thing created by nature and God....Covering it up and being ashamed of what God gave you, THAT buddy, is a sin. I hope this is "laid out" well enough for the iota of common sense you and the other zealots out there have. As I said, religion and its moronic influences are being phased out more and more, and I hope to see it completely extinct (like an old obsolete medical practice, bleeding, leaches, etc), by the end of my lifetime. Until the world is freed from the stupidity of religion, dictating to people what they should do, then and only then, will the world know peace...